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Earlier today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following official communique:
The Government of Costa Rica extends a warm greeting to the people and the Government of the French Republic in light of their Presidential Elections on May 6th, which resulted in the election of Mr. Francois Hollande as the next President of France.
Costa Rica warmly congratulates President Elect Francois Hollande and the French people, and also greets the candidates who participated in the democratic elections process on the first and second rounds of voting.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulates the Government of President Nicolas Sarkozy for establishing conditions that allowed a distinguished electoral process.
The Costa Rican Government is hereby convinced that the French Republic and Costa Rica will continue strengthening their good relations of friendship and cooperation, as well as a common agenda in which values and goals are shared on bilateral, regional and global levels.
The official results of the second round of voting yesterday confirmed Hollande as the winner with 51.62 percent of the votes. President Nicolas Sarkozxy garnered 48.28 percent of the ballots.
According to the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and France have traditionally been good, due to a convergence of views on many multilateral subjects (environmental protection, sustainable development, combating climate change, as well as combating terrorism and corruption).
One of the areas of agreement and mutual work between Costa Rica and France is sustainable tourism. France declared her sustainable tourism initiatives during her Millennium Development Goals proclamation at the United Nations General Assembly back in 2000.
Like Costa Rica, France enjoys a significant contribution to her Gross Domestic Product from tourism revenues. A number of cultural measures have made the French tourism industry more sustainable, in a similar fashion to Costa Rica’s focus on eco-tourism.
